


To Go Nowhere in Particular

by footinsink



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Infertility, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 22:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10173440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/footinsink/pseuds/footinsink
Summary: Judy Hopps had a tender heart.





	

Judy Hopps had a tender heart.

She remembers the first time she noticed, somewhere in the grey dawn of adolescence and the twilight of childhood, on a trip to the Bunnyburrow aquatic center.

It was the end of a hot, humid August day. She was on her way to the shower room when she saw a young couple sprawled out on the wooden slat bench by the lockers in the vestibule, tuckered out after a long day swimming in the sun. They were both dressed in the red swimsuits the lifeguards wore. 

In the waning yellow glow of the setting sun, Judy watched as the young buck settled his head on the doe's lap. The doe tenderly brushed his fur away from his forehead. He held her paw as she rested it on his chest. They were probably younger than she was now, Judy mused, but adulthood had begun to sweeten the curves of the doe and there was a nascent broadness in the buck's shoulders and maturity in his jawline.

It made Judy avert her eyes as she stepped past them into the shower room, under the harsh fluorescents and away from the gold-dipped locker room and its dancing dust motes. 

As she washed the salt off her body, Judy thought it was so awfully sweet and just downright romantic. Wistfully, she thought of the day she might have a buck of her own to hold with such gentleness and care.

Well, here it was. Not quite the picture of the buck she had envisioned, but a happy ending all her own. Who was about to doze face-first into a bowl of blueberry fro-yo.

Nicholas Wilde jerked up at the sound of her chair pushing back in their little kitchenette. 

"'M awake, I'm awake," he slurred, blinking rapidly. Nick tightened his grip on his spoon, with a renewed attempt at vigor.

Judy gently plucked the spoon out of his paw and popped the lid back onto the container. She reached for his cheek and brought sleepy green eyes to meet her violet ones before he could protest.

"Your eyes are falling, sweetheart," she said.

Sleepy as they may be, the corners of Nick’s eyes and mouth crinkled into a knowing smile at the use of his very first nickname for her.

She brushed her thumb against the russet-colored fur of his jaw. "How's about we get you into bed?"

Nick pressed the side of his face to her stomach, a sturdy arm wrapping around her back and pulling Judy in close. "I fully co-sign this plan," he murmured. 

The only thing that lay between Nick's stint undercover and their warm and deep bed in a newly upgraded one-bedroom at the Grand Pangolin Arms was a hot shower. Nick protested for show but even he could not have stood getting into bed with three days’ worth of dust and debris clinging to his fur. 

Nick emerged from the shower, toweling off and momentarily revived. As he entered their bedroom he saw Judy in the glow of the lamplight, propped up in bed with Furry Potter in her lap. She was perpendicular to the headboard, pillows relocated against the wall behind her back. 

She looked up at him, embarrassed. "Hi," Judy said.

She sounded shy.

"Hi," Nick replied, pulling on a pair of black shorts. "Is this a feng shui thing?"

Judy laughed. "No -- it's, um..." She closed the book and reached out her arms. "Just c'mere."

He did. Nick tilted sideways, allowing gravity and Judy to pull his tired body toward hers. 

Judy pulled his head to rest on her lap, face slightly burrowed against her stomach where her tank top rode up. 

Nick practically purred as her paw pressed slow and gentle against his forehead, smoothing his damp fur back against his scalp.

He felt her other paw come to rest on his chest. He instinctively moved to cover her hand with his, just off his heart. 

Squeezing, he looked up at Judy with heavy-lidded eyes in askance.

"I've always wanted to do this," Judy murmured. "When I was a kid, it was... there was this couple working at the pool and they were sitting just as we are now. I thought it was really sweet and... romantic? It's the first time I remember really thinking about the, you know, 'mushy-gushy' stuff, then." Judy kept carding her fingers through his fur. "It wasn't kissing, or sex... but I remember looking at them and thinking, ‘I want that someday.’”

Judy dared to look down. “Is that stupid?"

Nick was listening, looking at her with mirth mixed with a tenderness that swelled her heart. He reached up a paw and tilted her chin down. 

"No, Carrots. It's not stupid at all," he said. 

Judy leaned into his touch and pressed a kiss to his palm. Her throat felt tight and she squeezed her eyes shut against an unbidden dampness, feeling absurdly grateful.

"I do have one important question," Nick said.

"What?" Judy replied, her voice thick.

"Were they hot?"

With a wet snort, Judy nodded, overcome with giggles even as tears escaped from her eyes. 

Nick pushed up out of her lap and pulled her down to him, kissing her soundly. "Pervert," he whispered against her lips.

"How does that make me the perv?” Judy sputtered. “I was just a kid! They were like, eight years older than me at least!"

Nick waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Ooh. I guess that makes me the pervert," Nick said. He brushed away a drop clinging to her lower lash line.

"I guess it does," Judy agreed, and pressed her mouth to his.

They lay like that for several minutes on the mattress. Face-to-face, arms and legs wrapped up in each other, Nick's paws clasped over hers. Judy felt her eyes begin to close. 

"You wanna know what mine was?" Nick's voice emerged in the growing darkness, unbidden.

Judy squeezed his paws, cracking one eye open. "I thought you fell asleep."

"Not yet," he murmured, eyes closed.

"Tell me," Judy said. 

"It was fifth grade. I had a crush on this girl on the bus. Her stop was just before mine. She had a few younger siblings. Sometimes they'd come with her mom and dad to the bus stop. I remember watching her get off the bus, one day. Her little sister was there. She reached down and scooped her up, smacked a big kiss on her cheek and hoisted her on her hip. Just one fluid motion, you know? It was... beautiful. They waved goodbye to us as we left. Her sister was still tucked on her hip. I always liked to think she was waving to me."

Nick scrunched open one eye. "Is that stupid?" 

Judy pulled him closer. "No. That's probably one of the sweetest things I've ever heard."

"Yeah?" Nick asked.

"Yes," Judy replied firmly.

"Hhmmm," Nick exhaled happily.

A few moments passed.

"Nick and Bus Girl, sitting in a tree --"

"Carrots," Nick groaned.

"--K-I-S-S-I-N-G …"

Nick stuck his tail in her mouth. Judy's song continued, muffled. "Furss comes lurf, then comes mawwiage --" Nick rolled over her as Judy batted his tail away.

“Officer Hopps!” Nick warned with mock sternness. They were openly tussling now.

"--Then comes the baby in the baby carriage!" Judy shrieked. She dodged his marauding paws seeking ticklish spots and curled up in surrender.

"You are a child, Judy," Nick declared. He fell back onto the mattress, springs squeaking.

"I claimed myself on taxes this year," Judy said breathlessly. "S’ not a child."

Nick chuckled and felt all the fight go out of him, almost delirious with the need for slumber. He could feel himself giving in, soul-baring second wind knocked out of him. Nick stretched a paw out to switch off the lamp. 

"Was she pretty?" Judy asked, into the dark.

"Yeah. She was pretty." 

"Fox?"

"A vixen, yes."

"What happened to her?" 

"I don't know. I, um, left before graduation. I heard she moved away. I haven't thought about her in years." Nick stopped mid-yawn. “Laura,” he said, with a touch of surprise. “Her name was Laura.”

Judy nuzzled into his neck. "I'm going to give you yours, someday," she said.

"What, sweetheart?"

"Babies." Judy yawned, too, just this side of delirious. "A little burnished bunny baby with green eyes. Or a pup with orbs of amethyst and fur like... stormclouds. I'd wave at you. I would holler at you."

Nick smiled at her prim pronunciation. Swallowing carefully, he made sure his voice was steady. "That would be nice."

"They'd be beautiful."

"Yes, they would." 

"Nicholas..."

"Shhh, honey, I know. I know. Sleep now. Hold me.” Nick’s tail swished warm against Judy’s back. He pulled her close.

Judy went lax, and held on. 

They slept. 

The humming refrigerator stood sentry in the kitchen, freezer working on the single polka dot cup tucked in a frosty corner.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into Zootopia fanfiction, and my third attempt at fanfiction, ever. I've been scraping the interwebs to find this story until I realized I had it in me all along. It was just hollering to be released. 
> 
> Title comes from a line in "Love" by Lana Del Rey. 
> 
> The name for Nick's busmate was inspired by Laura, the pseudonym for a bookish girl Malcolm X dated before descending into a life of hustling, to whom he dedicated a chapter in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."
> 
> The stories Judy and Nick share with one another were inspired by two moments in my life. I gave one to Judy and one to Nick. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. I love this fandom so much.


End file.
